Fascinating presentations from TED conferences.

2012

How do we consume data? Technologist JP Rangaswami muses on our relationship to information, and offers a surprising and sharp insight: we treat it like food.

As we expect more from technology, do we expect less from each other? Sherry Turkle studies how our devices and online personas are redefining human connection and communication — and asks us to think deeply about the new kinds of connection we want to have. Sherry Turkle studies how technology is shaping our modern relationships: with others, with ourselves, with it.

Can government be run like the Internet, permissionless and open? Coder and activist Jennifer Pahlka believes it can — and that apps, built quickly and cheaply, are a powerful new way to connect citizens to their governments — and their neighbours. Jennifer Pahlka is the founder of Code for America, which matches software geniuses with US cities to reboot local services.

Vijay Kumar from the  University of Pennsylvania explains his team’s work on autonomous quadcopters to TED2012 audience. He also speculates on potential future uses. “Agile aerial robots like this have many applications. You can send them inside buildings as first responders to look for intruders, maybe look for biochemical leaks … [or they] can be used for transporting cargo.”

2011

Patrick Meier at TEDx Silicon Valley (July 2011) –  Crisis Mapping

 

Economics writer Tim Harford studies complex systems — and finds a surprising link among the successful ones: they were built through trial and error. In this sparkling talk from TEDGlobal 2011, he asks us to embrace our randomness and start making better mistakes.

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